Oscar Wilde

The systems that fail are those that rely on the permanency of human nature, and not its growth and development.

To be good is to be in harmony with oneself. Discord is to be forced to be in harmony with others.

The only one you need in your life is that person who shows you he needs you in his.

If a woman wants to hold a man she has merely to appeal to what is worst in him.

Music is the perfect type of art.

Every one of course represents the spirit of his age, but there is an eternal aspect of the Spirit of every age which may be caught. To recreate the past from the mutilated fragments of the present is the task of the Historian.

There is no Mystery so great as Misery.

The best people to work for are me, myself and I.

Learn to differentiate between ignorance and stupidity.

It is perfectly possible to get what you think you want and be miserable. It's possible too, to never get it but deeply enjoy the process of trying. In this world, there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.

And if it feels good... Feel it!

If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing well. If it is worth having, it is worth waiting for. If it is worth attaining, it is worth fighting for. If it is worth experiencing, it is worth putting aside time for.

God, bless me with luxury. Necessities I can do without.

Marco Polo had seen the inhabitants of Zipangu place rose-colored pearls in the mouths of the dead. A sea-monster had been enamoured of the pearl that the diver brought to King Perozes, and had slain the thief, and mourned for seven moons over its loss.

No publisher should ever express an opinion of the value of what he publishes. That is a matter entirely for the literary critic to decide.

Cleverness becomes a public nuisance.

California is an Italy without its art.

More than half of modern culture depends upon what one shouldn't read.

A glass of absinthe is as poetical as anything in the world. What difference is there between a glass of absinthe and a sunset?

Great passions are for the great of soul, and great events can be seen only by those who are on a level with them

Aestheticism is a search after the signs of the beautiful. It is the science of the beautiful through which men seek the correlation of the arts. It is, to speak more exactly, the search after the secret of life.

Finding the meaning of life is easy. Simply get a dictionary, go to the 'L' section, and find the word 'life.'

Beauty is a form of genius -- is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation.

The worst slave owners were those who were kind to their slaves

I see the moon like a clipped piece of silver. Like gilded bees the stars cluster round her.

Education is very admirable but let us not forget that anything worth knowing cannot be taught.

Most people are boring and stupid.

She wore far too much rouge last night and not quite enough clothes. That is always a sign of despair in a woman.

What men call the shadow of the body is not the shadow of the body, but is the body of the soul.

The burden of this world is too great for one man to bear, and the world's sorrow too heavy for one heart to suffer.